Menu help for a patrol competition

[SctDad]

OK before everyone jumps at the leaders planning the meals there is a purpose. I talked with the SM tonight and told him about a little competition that would be interesting. He loved the idea.

 

IRON CHEF Troop XX

 

So what the plan is, we are going to give the boys a cooler and/or tote with some ingrediants and they have to come up with a meal based on the ingrediants. Kindof a Iron Chef/Chopped mix and they will be judged on several areas.

 

The idea is that we are going to give the ingrediants to the patrols at lunch time and let them start. They will have until the end of dinner to make their meals and then present it to the adult leadership.

 

For a prize we are looking for an old skillet that we can paint gold as the "IRON SKILLET"

 

What kind of things would you put in the menu for the boys to work with. We are thinking meat, bread/starch, vegetable. Maybe a few choices and like spaghetti noodles or elbow mac, beef or pork. You get the idea.(This message has been edited by SctDad)

[John-in-KC]

Bread/starch my monkey's uncle.

 

Give them biscuit mix, or even better, the individual ingredients for biscuits.

 

For me....

 

Meat

Veggies: Tomatoes, onions, potatoes, carrots

Spices

Dry milk

Biscuit mix

 

Butter ,,, for oil as well as for food.

Jelly

 

Milk and cream

[SctDad]

Something that I forgot, these are young cooks. Novice to, at best, amateur. So although the scratch made biscuits are a good idea, that may be something for a later time.

[GKlose]

We've done similar things in our troop, and at camporees. Our scouts loved a camporee's Iron Chef competition, and the next year I ran a competition that had a backpacking theme (entries were judged on all sorts of levels: easy prep and cleanup, Leave No Trace, weight, nutritional balance, etc).

 

At the troop level, I suggested a "mystery box" (like what you've suggested) where each patrol was offered a box of random ingredients, and that went over really well. Another time, each patrol was told up front they would get two whole chickens and they planned accordingly.

 

Got the idea from this forum to do a "Cast Iron Chef" competition on a future outing, where all entries have to be done in dutch ovens (we don't cast iron skillets, but that would be cool if we did).

 

And because our patrols aren't in the habit of doing their own planning and shopping on a regular basis (our troop is adult-led -- but I do want to start the ball rolling in the other direction), I want to try a "mystery box" which will actually be a "mystery envelope" (with a set amount of cash for a set number of meals). This would be good for an outing that is relatively close to a supermarket.

 

Our mystery box had all sorts of things in it. Cans of vegetables, kidney beans, tomatoes. Boxes of rice and pasta. Fresh ingredients. Leftover staples went into a box in the troop trailer, where they can be used on future outings.

 

Guy

[Stosh]

On a recent outing of my Venturing crew they did a similar thing. However the ingredients were not all the same. Because it was a reenactment of the 1860's the ingredients were period correct food and the boys of my crew got a cloth napkin wrapped bundle which consisted of a field dressed squirrel along with potatoes, onions, etc. and they had to prepare a meal from that. Of course none of them had ever cleaned a squirrel before so it was quite interesting. While it may not be okay for a new troop of young boys, a variance in the ingredients might be helpful in challenging the older boys with a difficult menu, while inspiring the younger ones with a simpler one.

 

Oh, and why would one paint an IRON skillet GOLD? Why not invest in the Lodge skillet with the BSA logo on the bottom and use it as a traveling trophy so this project can continue on for many years?

 

Stosh(This message has been edited by jblake47)

[CNYScouter]

I saw this type of event at a Sea Scout regatta - the mystery ingrediant was "SPAM"

 

Most of the Sea Scouts had never heard of it before.

Once they figured out what it was they came up with some pretty impressive dishes

 

It's easy to store; comes in a can and is already cooked so under cooking it won't make some one sick

[Eagledad]

We did this once with the all the ingredients required for banana splits. It was a huge hit and some good creativity.

 

Barry

[GKlose]

A SPAM Mystery Challenge! I love it!

[SctDad]

Here are some of the things that have been suggested so far.

 

Meat

Veggies: Tomatoes, onions, potatoes, carrots

Spices

Biscuit mix (I think we may just get the biscuit Tubes)

 

Butter for oil as well as for food.

Jelly

 

Milk and cream

 

 

As for the Golden skillet, we were going to find an old one, clean off rust and stuff and then just paint it gold.

[Buffalo Skipper]

Meat is an intersting topic. It might be fun to consider less common meats as part of the challenge. Lamb, rather than beef, or venison or other gamey protein. Instead of chicken, try something like duck or goose. Consider what is available in your area. Ostrich, if you can get it would be quiet a lot of fun.

 

Avoid bison, that would just be wrong, though Bobwhite (the other white meat) certainly be all right.

[SctDad]

In reference to the meats, I was thinking about something like bratwurst or keilbasa. I was going to avoid the ground beef or chicken breast. Avoiding the pork loins too. Don't want the judges or anyone else getting sick.

[Stosh]

With the standards of food production today, pork is safer than chicken.

 

Invest in a cheap food thermometer and quit worrying about it.

 

Stosh

[Twocubdad]

We've done this several times and it's a great hit. In planning the surprise grocery items, I try to reverse engineer a couple receipes. For example, last time we included a chicken breast for each Scout with green peppers, onions, a jar of spaghetti sauce, a small baggie of flour, a box of pasta, butter or oil, an dozen eggs, bacon, a can of cream of mushroom soup, ham, cheese and bread.

 

The patrols were told to think outside the normal breakfast/lunch/dinner options and think what they could come up with by crossing ingredients from what was obvious.

 

A couple things happened. First, we got what we wanted from a couple patrols. One put together a chicken catchatorry (sp? obviously) with the spaghetti sauce, peppers and onions. Another did a casserole wapping the chicken with bacon, ham and cheese and pouring the cream of mushroom soup over it all. We also got some really great omelettes for breakfast.

 

The other cool thing was that for a long time the patrols all brought onions and peppers on every campout. Instead of plain hot dogs, they added grilled onions and peppers. Instead of scrambled egges, we got omelettes for breakfast. THAT was the real outcome we were looing for.